CAPSULE:
A group of Texas filmmakers produced this
faithful adaptation of FRANKENSTEIN and a half-shoestring
budget. Syd Lance directs a script by writer/producer
Judith B. Shields. The film falls short of commercial
standards, but is still an ambitious effort with
impressive results. It is a serious adaptation intended
neither to amuse nor really to scare but to tell the
classic story as faithfully as possible. Rating: low +1
(-4 to +4) or 5/10

It is a huge challenge to make a feature-length film adaptation of
Mary Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN that is faithful to the novel. The
plot of the novel is long and ponderous. One frequently hears that
it never has been done by any film, but in fact it has. The film
is VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN (but has been retitled TERROR OF
FRANKENSTEIN). That film is slow and ponderous, but it is very
much Mary Shelley's story. Now the new film FRANKENSTEIN'S MONSTER
is arguably the second most faithful adaptation of the novel. That
in itself would make the film remarkable. But what is as
remarkable is that the film was made with $6000 and a lot of
volunteer work. To attempt so difficult a goal with so little
funding is highly ambitious, particularly for filmmakers with
little experience.

To accommodate the low budget some Texan filmmakers shot the film
in fourteen areas in and around Houston and Galveston. That meant
moving the setting from Switzerland to what the alert eye will
catch as Texas. Arctic scenes are moved to warm waters. An
original score was written for the film. A prosthetic monster
makeup was designed but accidentally lost so a novel and original
approach was used to make the monster demonic. This Frankenstein
monster steams. But since the idea was to make a "steampunk"
version of FRANKENSTIEN, having the monster himself give off steam
seems oddly appropriate. Where here the energy comes from is left
to the imagination. This is also the first time in memory the
Frankenstein monster is bearded. On a $6000 budget they were not
paying the actor enough to get him to shave his beard off.

As this is a semi-amateur film several small problems are obvious.
There are times when the sound drops, sometimes mid-sentence.
There are times when the lips of the actors are not in sync with
the words on the soundtrack. Some of the dialog is awkward and not
what the character would say. The character William is killed but
the actor still moves. An effect for lightning is singularly
unconvincing and the monster's "steaming" is present in some scenes
and not others. When the monster is not steaming (and even when he
is) he does not appear monstrous. The script leaves some loose
ends including a subplot of a student jealous of Frankenstein.

How and even if this film is going to be made available to the
public remains to be seen. However, it should be of interest to
fans of the horror film and perhaps even those interested in
English literature. The filmmakers have attempted an adaptation of
FRANKENSTEIN accurate to the novel, a feat rarely ever attempted.
And it has worked as well as it has in spite of or because it was
made on a mouse of a budget. The result is only semi-successful,
but as good as the film is impressive. I rate FRANKENSTEIN'S
MONSTER a low +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or 5/10.